1. Dabo Swinney former walk-on with the Crimson Tide is moved from interim head coach to head coach at Clemson. It must be noted that Clemson did not even interview a black coaching candidate. 2. Missouri OCoord Dave Christensen is named Head Coach at Wyoming who also didn't interview any black coaching candidates 3. New Mexico State is rumoured to be contemplating firing Hal Mummee, who is not black. 4. Washington has been flying beneath the radar since firing Black coach Ty Willingham. They did however interview Mike Haywood who is also black, but highly unlikely to actually get the job. 5. Tenn hired Lane Kiffen but apparently also did not even consider a black coach for the job. 6. Charles "Chuckles" Weis is still swinging in the breeze, his AD has not said he'll be retained and he's not said he won't be retained. Chuckles is out recruiting like he thinks he will be retained. While not black, Chuckles is fat so he does fill a demographic. 7. Miss State another program flying beneath the radar since the resignation of black coach Sly Croom. 8. Syracuse, nothing is known about what their plans are. They are rumoured to be interested in Turner Gill of Buffalo, a black coach, but have not interviewed anybody. 9. Eastern Mich Univ has supposedly interviewed a number of candidates including black ND coach Corwin Brown for their job, but has not filled the position as yet. I expect that after this weekend a lot of activity will take place in the coaching sweep stakes. I predict that Ty Willingham will not be interviewed for any coaching positions.
ND's new AD needs to address this situation NOW and demonstrably, whatever his decision is. CW is the lamest of lame ducks at the moment. I want him replaced badly but would be willing to accept his return only if he overhauled that pathetic coaching staff. The only one on there who I view as desirable to keep is Rob Ianello, the WR coach who is also a very good recruiter. The rest are completely expendable and that includes Jon Tenuta who's vaunted blitz package was a day late and a dollar short all year. Two of them will probably take care of themselves as Haywood will leave one way or another and Corwin Brown may get a HC job at Eastern Michigan. Charlie also needs an O-Coordiantor who will do the game plan and call the plays and hopefully has a lot more imagination than Weis/Haywood every displayed.
Turner Gill to Syracuse seems like a good move. He gets his feet wet in a BCS conference(but weak enough to make a quick impact) and he's already got contacts up there. If he's really a good coach he should be able to get the Orange back to respectability... Then... in 3 years if Mike Sherman doesn't work out for the Aggies, we swoop in and steal AJ's man in waiting!
Interesting Terry. Black coaches are having a hard time busting the barrier in College Football and that's a shame. I was hoping Croom would be successful at Miss State. But I think being successful at Miss State and staying within the rules may be mutually incompatible. I hope Sylvester fins a good coaching job somewhere. He might be better served on a personal level to go back to the pros. Charlie Weis. From a neutral observer point of view he hasn't fully had the chance to prove whether or not he can be successful as the Notre Dame Head Coach. Now having said that I have to admit that I felt the same way about Ron Zook right up until he lost to Miss State and then was fired before the next game. I do not feel he ever had the opportunity to show whether he could be successful at Florida or not, but I do believe a couple of things about Zook. First after that lost I had to conclude that life is not always fair and that whether or not Zook had proved he could or could not make Florida a consistent winner, that after that loss the noise in the system was so great that he was not going to be able to produce. I also believe that under those circumstances it was best for Florida to let him go and pursue his replacement. If it had not been for that mid season firing that we took a lot of heat over we may not have been able to get Urban Meyer. I also believe about Zook that no matter how long he coaches he will ever be the total package that I believe Urban Meyer to be. It's unfortunate, but Notre Dame may be in much the same place with Weis now. What is different though is that Zook took over a successful program with decent players but followed a legend. The reasons are different but Weis may have arrived at the same place for different reasons. Back to the Black coaching situation. We have Charlie Strong at Florida as our defensive coordinator. It amazes and disappoints me that he's never even been interviewed. It will be interesting to see who is hired at some of these schools and whether or not Weis survives. I can understand either ending with Weis.
I think that is where Weis is right now. Everybody is down on him, the media is jumping on him, the fans are against him...a lot of noise in the system. I keep thinking back to A&M and Franchione, I think a lot of Ag's wanted him gone after the 2006 season, but he got another year and maybe it would have been better to fire him after the 2006 after all. Scott would have to fill in here but I think that, like Charlie, the buyout may have been a consideration in giving him 1 more year.
What's this rumor about Jon "Chuckie" Gruden to ND???? Wow .... Gruden to ND and Daddy Kiffen to UT .... and the Bucs are in trouble!! :shock:
The Gruden rumor is an old one. Depending on whose account you choose to believe, he: -wanted the job, but it was nixed by Al Davis -wanted the job, but wasn't considered by the AD -loves ND and entertained the idea, but is happy where he is. Those are the rumors from the last coaching searches. From time to time, you will see an ND fan with a sense of humor posting with a handle or making a joke that says 'It's Gruden' which is a reference to a late evening in which ND's coaching search was rumored to be completed.. the results of the search were a secret and the rumor that it was Gruden was flowing hot under the surface like a lava river. Then in the late evening hours, after hours of speculation, I fairly well respected person on the NDN board posted a thread entitled "It's Gruden", which set off a celebratory orgy for several hours.... until the truth came out that it was not, in fact, Gruden and that the search would go on... His name will come up for every ND coaching search for a long, long time.
Terry our problem was similar but a little more complicated. Back when Fran was hired, we had just fired our AD, so we didn't have anyone sitting in the chair to run the show. Several of our big-money donors decided Fran was the man, and they fronted the money for the original contract. Guess what they didn't do? They didn't write in any buyout provisions!!! :shock: Then after the debacle of 05 most of us were ready to give him the heave. All except the big money guys who had brought him in. They were too proud to admit they'd made a mistake... and at that time with no buyout it was an $8million mistake! No on else had the cash, so we had to wait. Now... we will be paying for a LONG time since he destroyed our recruiting base, and left very little for Sherman to work with...
I forgot the 2005 season was the one A&M regressed, then rebounded to 9-3 after 2006 including beating Texas, but getting humped in the Bowl game. I wonder if you'd have gotten him out after 2007 if that whole newsletter scandal hadn't shown up. That certainly gave the AD the long end of the stick didn't it.
I wonder what's going to happen with the Washington job, they are worse off than what Scott describes the A&M situation after Fran. The next guy in there is going to have very little to work with, a great QB for sure, but not much else. It's going to take 3 years of great recruting to turn that job around and if those 3 years are all 3 and 4 win seasons that guy might not make it to season 4. Whereas the ND job is prime, the guy who takes over will have a solid talent base and a favorable schedule for the next couple of years. It wouldn't be a stretch to say the next guy could win 9 or 10 games next year, even if that guy is Charlie.
coaching <r>For those fans who thought Brian Kelly might be going to ND or Wash or anywhere else...forget it. He's staying at UC:<br/> <br/> <URL url="http://gobearcats.cstv.com/sports/blog/spec-rel/120208aaa.html"><LINK_TEXT text="http://gobearcats.cstv.com/sports/blog/ ... 08aaa.html">http://gobearcats.cstv.com/sports/blog/spec-rel/120208aaa.html</LINK_TEXT></URL> <E>8)</E></r>
I wouldn't touch that UW job with a 100 ft pole! The only saving grace for the next guy might be that a lot of the PAC is a little off right now. Sure, you'll get waffle-stomped by USC, but the others look like they might give you a chance to be competetive if you have a good offensive system. ND seems primed for better times. I'd love to see what we could do with your roster.
Well apparently Charlie has weathered the storm and will be back in 2009. Mike Frank is reporting his on the Irish Eyes Front Page. Texas Bowl!!!!! I hope!
Shock of the day. Mike Bellotti of Oregon has stepped down. I wonder why? I haven't seen an online article yet. So don't know what he said at his press conference. Edit: Bellotti will become the Oregon AD. Chip Kelly will take over as Head Coach at Oregon.
Now he has to do the right thing and shitcan that worthless staff he put together... at least six of them. Latina, Oliver, Polian, Haywood, Powlus and Mendoza need to be replaced yesterday. Then he needs to hire a GOOD offensive coordinator and have him design an offense to fit the personnel and let the new hire call the plays.